Ars Coralis Coeln
Programs:
> Vespers of the Blessed Virgin – Hildegard of Bingen
> Bordesholm Lament of the Virgin Mary
On the initiative of the IFM (Initiativkreis Freie Musik Köln) and the Archdiocese of Cologne, the schola “Ars Choralis Coeln” (ACC) was founded under the direction of Maria Jonas. ACC gave its debut concert at the 2004 “Romanische Nacht” in Cologne. Since then, the ensemble has succeeded in establishing itself at home and abroad. It has accepted invitations to the Schnütgen Museum, the National Art Gallery in Bonn, Essen Cathedral, and the Thuringian State Exhibition, as well as to renowned festivals, including Montalbane, the Hohenloher Musiksommer, the MDR (Middle German Radio) Musik Sommer, Rheinvokal (South German Radio), the Uckermärkische Musikwochen, the Festival of Early Music in the Erzgebirge, and to the A Capella Festival (Hanover). In Europe, ACC has made guest appearances in Graz (Austria) under the auspices of the Styriarte and of the Easter festival PSALM, at Kärnten’s Trigonale (Austria), the Festival Voix et Route Romane (France), at the Festival Concordia Vocis on Sardinia (Italy), in Musica w Radnu (Poland), and Musica Antiqua Perast (Montenegro).
ACC has enjoyed successful collaborations with the ensembles Sequentia, Ioculatores, Amarcord, Tenore e Cuncordu de Orosei (Sardinia), and Oni Wytars. Under the direction of Benjamin Bagby, ACC collaborated with the ensemble “Sequentia” on the CD Krone und Schleier – Musik aus mittelalterlichen Frauenklostern (Crown and Veil – Music from medieval women’s monasteries), a co-production with the West German Radio (WDR).
In 2007, three further CDs were released: Letare Germania was produced for the 800th anniversary of the birth of Elisabeth of Thuringia, a Divine Office in honor of the saint from a Cologne antiphonal from the end of the thirteenth century (on the Chrismon label). The two CDs Vita St. Elisabethae, in conjunction with the ensembles Ioculatores and Amarcord, and Rose van Jhericho – The Songbook of Anna von Köln, a first recording of this Lower-Rhenish song repertoire from the milieu of the Devotio Moderna, appeared on the RAUMKLANG label. The latter, a co-production with the WDR, received two critics’ awards in France: CHOC de Monde de la Musique and 5 Diapasons.
The current CD projects are to be released in 2009 on RAUMKLANG: These include the lauda program Canto Novello – a project in collaboration with Oni Wytars (co-production with the WDR, West German Radio), and Hildegard von Bingen – Vespers for the Blessed Virgin. The latter was recorded in October 2008 in the authentic environment in Eberbach Monastery. The production was sponsored by the North Rhine-Westphalia Art Foundation.
The oeuvre of Hildegard von Bingen will be a focus of Ars Choralis Coeln’s work also in the coming year: the ensemble is to perform the Ordo Virtutum for the first time.
